The First Seismograph

The First Seismograph - Page Text Content

S: The First Seismograph

FC: The First Seismograph | Joanna

1: Many people always wonder, what is a seismograph? Or sometimes, what does a seismograph do? Sometimes they are just able to figure out that it may have something to do with earthquakes. For those people a seismograph does have to do something with earthquakes but that information is not just good enough to know you still don't know what it works for or what it is. Well the seismograph is an invention invented all the way back in ancient china by a famous scientist back in that time and if wasn't for that invention our life will be different from what they are now.

2: The Seismograph What is it?

3: The seismograph was a device invented in about the Second Century C.E. or more specific around the 132 century C.E. It was invented in China at the time of the Han Dynasty. This invention called seismograph was used to measure when there was an earthquake and what direction the earthquake came from. It was the first item to detect earthquake activity. This seismograph could measure earthquakes from long and short distances around china and let everybody knows in the city where there have been an earthquake and where to send help. It could even detect minor shocks around China and let everybody know. When the imperial court were able to hear about this invention they were really astonished and shocked, afterwards this item was considered a great importance by the government at that time for the reason that at that time there were a lot of earthquakes in China and he would also know where there was an earthquake and where to send items to help like water and food. This invention of the seismograph was so useful at that time that it was used in later dynasties too. This invention had help a lot in so many ways all the way back in the Han Dynasty and even today, in the sense that the scientist were able to make a new one of this invention, the seismograph, that we now have and use today to measure earthquake activity is used all around the world.

4: The seismograph How did it work & look like?

5: This invention called the seismograph had a very peculiar design but it was actually very cleverly made for it to function. Outside it looked like a vessel of bronze almost like a wine jar but not exactly as a wine jar for the fact that it was almost six feet in diameters. It had eight bronze dragons on the outside and each holding a bronze or copper ball in their mouth each dragons facing outward from the rim with their tails up. The On the base beneath each dragon there were eight toads with their mouth tilted upward and wide open, like ready to receive the ball from any dragon's mouth which might drop. On the outside it had different designs of many different things like mountains, tortoise, birds and other animals everywhere around the vessel. Like the outside if the seismograph the inside was also very weird and worked in a peculiar way to. When there was an earthquake it caused the mechanism inside this invention to vibrate making the dragon open its mouth and causing the ball to fall which then is caught by one of the toads underneath. What also happened when there was a tremor somewhere around China was that it caused a pendulum inside the vessel to press on the dragon nearest the earthquake direction causing their mouth to open. Once the ball had fallen and landed on the toad's mouth it made a loud clang telling everybody who heard it about that there has been an earthquake somewhere around china.

6: You need be very clever to be able to create an invention like the seismograph and that clever person was called Chang Heng also known as Zang Heng. Chang Heng was a famous scientist, mathematician, astronomer, geographer known many places around china. He was born in a poor family but was so clever and intelligent that he had the opportunity to be educated and go to school to become everything that he was at that time even the director of astrology who argued about the fact that the earth was flat. He invented many inventions like the telescope and some others like the celestial globe which was operated by a water clock, the south pointing chariot and of course the earthquake weathercock or known now as the seismograph which measured earthquake activity. The surprising part of all of these inventions is that many of them are still or reconstructed even today. The invention of the seismograph was a very successful making everybody see how clever he was until the day that a ball from the dragons fell into the toads mouth but nobody felt the earthquake then their way of thinking changed but after a few day a messenger came saying that there has been an earthquake in another city not so close by.

7: Chang Heng's Tomb | Chang Heng Who?

8: So now the same people who started reading the first sentence now they know what is a seismograph and how does it work and of course how important it is to us now. They know that Chang Heng invented it and that he invented it around the second century C.E. They also know now that it is a lot bigger than a wine jar back at that time. Now they know that if it wasn't for Chang Heng we wouldn't have the seismograph that we have and use today.

9: The End

10: Quiz | 1. In What Dynasty was this invention created? 2.What did this invention measured? 3.Which animals were on the outside of this invention?

11: 4. Who invented this invention? 5. How is the person who invented it, also known as?